The use of cellular telephone systems is constantly increasing, which, in turn, imposes increasing demands on the coverage and capacity of the cellular telephone systems.
Cellular telephone system coverage and capacity, however, is largely dependent on the antennas being used, and the locations of the antennas, which ultimately has an impact on the number of antennas/antenna sites that are required to provide the desired network coverage and capacity.
A conventional cell site often has a number of physical units. Firstly, the site comprises the actual antenna, which often, in order to allow control of the antenna lobe radiated by the antenna, consists of an array of antenna elements, which renders the antenna rather space requiring, in particular in the longitudinal direction of the antenna. Apart from the antenna, there are remote electrical tilt (RET) units, which are used to control the general direction of the lobe radiated by the antenna, amplifiers etc.
These units all require physical space and also often interconnection by means of cables. Further, a cell site often comprises a plurality of antennas, each of which requiring its associated equipment. This makes cell site planning a challenge from an aesthetic point of view, and often gives rise to conflicts with environmentalists and owners of buildings and other locations at which the cell sites are to be located. With regard to cell sites comprising masts, these masts are often of a framework kind, with little possibilities of hiding the antenna equipment.
The constantly increasing demands with regard to communication capacity will also result in more and more cell sites, thus rendering it even more difficult to position the antenna equipment at less visible and thereby aesthetically less disturbing locations.
Consequently, there exists a need for providing “cleaner sites”. One such approach is an approach, in which all the equipment and cables associated with an antenna array is integrated into a single unit. This integration not only improves the aesthetics of a cell site, but can also result in better performance, leading to a more reliable system operation.
However, such integration attempts can also give rise to other more negative effects, e.g. with regard to the manufacturing process. Consequently, there exists a need for an improved method of manufacturing antenna assemblies.